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Fans who have watched the new Ghost in the Shell anime on Prime Video this week probably noticed that it has a very different feel from the other adaptations that have come before. It is more stylized, sillier, and more playful than the films and shows we’ve seen. That comes from an almost obsessive approach the director had to Ghost in the Shell creator Masamune Shirow’s original manga, which included praying to an imaginary Shirow after binging the manga.

Mokochan, the director of the new Ghost in the Shell anime from DanDaDan studio Science Saru, recently spoke about how he spent a year and a half stoking a borderline unhealthy obsession with Masamune Shirow’s iconic manga. He explained that the manga and the animated films that followed “fundamentally altered his perspective on the world,” which meant he knew he would “get torn apart” if he didn’t do the series justice. He then describes “trying to achieve spiritual communion with the original creator” by reading Ghost in the Shell over and over.

“I would pray to this imaginary version of Shirow that emerged from my reading of the manga,” Mokochan explained, who also says that he has never met Shirow in real life. “Then, after about three days, the answer would quietly appear. At that point, it no longer mattered whether the answer came from my own inner thoughts or from my interpretation of the source material. That’s what I mean by spiritual communion.”

It is worth noting that Masamune Shirow is still alive and was likely available for a quick phone call during the production of the Ghost in the Shell anime, but we applaud Mokochan for going that extra mile and trying to seek a spiritual connection to him instead.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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